October 29, 2021

• Enraged Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) parents called on Superintendent Scott Ziegler and the district's board members to resign

• An email surfaced last week where Ziegler reported an alleged sexual assault in the girls' bathroom but on June 22 publicly said he had no record of assaults

• Parents stood outside the meeting in Virginia holding placards that read: 'Protect girls not gender' and' 'women and girls are not collateral damage'

• Scott Smith, the assault victim's father, was pictured with a bloody mouth, being dragged out of the June school board meeting

• Smith and his wife were shamed for protesting against the school's pro-transgender policy 8040 after the incident

• On Monday a Loudoun County judge found the boy 'in a skirt' guilty of sexually assaulting Smith's 15-year-old daughter in the girls' bathroom

Parents and students alike are taking a stand against a Virginia superintendent and school board that was accused of lying to cover up two alleged sexual assaults in order to push their pro-transgender policies.

Hundreds of residents gathered Tuesday at a Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) board meeting. Approximately 120 people signed up to speak at the demonstration - including a group of proclaimed radical feminists and Democrats - and fight for gender specific spaces.

Others protested outside, with many toting placards proclaiming themselves Democrats, leftists and feminists outraged by the board's antics.

'We really want to see the school board rescind the policy, there is absolutely no justifiable reason to have a policy that allows boys into women's bathrooms,' Democrat Kara Dansky said, according to The Federalist.

'It's just not acceptable, it's anti-feminist, it's misogynistic, it's politically regressive. All of the women standing behind me and near me are radical feminists, most of us are Democrats. We are here because we are on the political left and we stand in support of female-only spaces.'

Enraged parents cited an email that surfaced last week where Superintendent Scott Ziegler reported an alleged sexual assault in the girls' bathroom. The email, which was sent on May 28, 2021, contradicted a statement Ziegler made the month before when he publicly said that he had no record of bathroom assaults.

'You are so concerned with pushing race and gender that you sacrificed our children,' Patti Hidalgo Menders, president of the Loudoun County GOP Women's Club, said, according to Fox News.

Students from three Loudoun County high schools also participated in protest by walking out of their classrooms Tuesday morning and chanting 'Loudoun County protects rapists.'

The walkouts come a day after a juvenile court judge charged the student accused in the May 28 attack at Stone Bridge High with sexual assault, NBC 4 Washington reported.

A court hearing for the second alleged attack, which is said to have occurred at Broad Run High, is scheduled for next month. Sentencing for both incidents will take place after the hearing.

Erin Roselle Poe, who has a 10th grader and a fifth grader enrolled in the district, spoke out Tuesday night, saying the school board had failed the district.

'They've failed this county, they've failed students, they've lied to our faces, they've left our children very vulnerable and unsafe, and they continue to preach policies that are more coverups for their actions,' Poe told The Federalist.

'We've got to get the evil out of the schools.'

'I'm here because I'm concerned about the public safety of the public schools in Loudoun County,' Maddy, an eighth-grader who currently attends private school, shared.

Her mother, who was not named, echoed Maddy's claim: 'When the sexual assaults came out now every day I think … do I have to worry about her safety? This is definitely weighing on my mind.'

Outside the school board meeting, parents held placards that read: 'Protect girls not gender' and' 'women and girls are not collateral damage.'

Another said: 'Scott Ziegler knew about transgender-related crime but he lied anyway...Resign now!'

The superintendent wrote in the five-month-old email: 'The purpose of this email is to provide you with information regarding an incident that occurred at Stone Bridge HS. This afternoon a female student alleged that a male student sexually assaulter her in the restroom.'

Yet at a meeting on June 22 Ziegler said that to his knowledge, 'we don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms'.

Grandmother of LCPS students Carrie Michon claimed that the contradicting statements were a cover-up to bury the sexual assault investigation and 'protect your precious 8040 policy'.

The policy she referenced is the school's pro-transgender policy, which states that the school district 'shall allow gender-expansive or transgender students to use their chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their consistently asserted gender identity without any substantiating evidence, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student's permanent educational record'.

The policy also allows students 'to use the facility that corresponds to their consistently asserted gender identity'.

'While some transgender students will want that access, others may want alternatives that afford more privacy. Taking into account existing school facilities, administrators should take steps to designate gender-inclusive or single-user restrooms commensurate with the size of the school,' it added.

On Monday a Loudoun County judge found the boy 'in a skirt' guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old female classmate in the girls' bathroom. Juvenile court judge Pamela Brooks agreed with the charges - forcible sodomy and forcible fellatio - which is the juvenile court equivalent of a conviction.

It remains unclear if the boy is transgender and if that is how he was allowed into the bathrooms that day.

The boy, who has not been named because he is a minor, will return to court on November 15 for sentencing. He has also been charged with sexually assaulting another girl at a different school in the same Virginia school district in October.

He was allowed to use the girls' restroom because of policy 8040, which the victim's parents had been shamed for protesting against after the incident.

Superintendent Ziegler claimed on June 22 that he'd received 'no report' of a sexual assault in the school bathrooms. But on May 28, the day it happened, he sent this email to colleagues confirming that it had been reported. 'This afternoon, a female student alleged that a male student sexually assaulted her in the restroom,'

The teenage girl's father Scott Smith was dragged out of the June 22 meeting where Ziegler claimed they'd received no reports of sexual assaults.

At the school's most recent meeting parents seemed to have decided to no longer shun Smith and instead support his protests against the school board's pro-transgender bathroom rules.

Michon demanded: 'Every last one of you, resign!'

'A girl was sexually assaulted in May and you all knew about it. The predator was put back in schools to sexually assault another girl. You all should be fired,' Menders added.

Mother Erin Dunbar declared: 'Fire Scott Ziegler for his gross negligence, and if you haven't hired an attorney yet, I recommend you all find one.'

Another parent Erin Smith asked: 'Did any of you even respond to this email on May 28 from Dr Ziegler? Was that email alarming to anyone?'

'You just had hundreds of Loudoun County students walk out in protest because they feel unsafe in schools,' she added, citing Tuesday's protest where students walked out of their classrooms in a show of 'solidarity' for the victim.

A flyer for the walk out told students to wear white and leave their classrooms for 10 minutes. Some stood in front of their school, chanting: 'Loudoun County Protects Rapists!'

The girl's parents said they felt 'relieved' after but are demanding an apology from the National School Board Association (NSBA) for its characterization of parents who angrily protest woke school policies as domestic terrorists.

The NSBA has apologized for threatening to mobilize the FBI to prosecute parents after being asked to do so by the country's increasingly liberal public school system.

But Smith says they haven't gone far enough and is threatening to sue the NSBA for defamation unless it apologizes directly to him.

The angered mother Erin Smith also called out the school board's chair Brenda Sheridan, who suggested that parent complaints are focused on the gubernatorial elections taking place on November 2, according to Fox.

'We're not here to impact elections, Branda,' she said, adding: 'Get comfy because we are not going away.'

Even more parents chimed in as Alicia Brand said: 'We demand the resignation of Scott Ziegler.'

'LCPS protects rapists,' mother Amanda Shallot claimed. She also alleged that the school board 'covered up the assault (and) Ziegler lied about it'.

Shallot added: 'I call for immediate resignations of Dr. Ziegler and any of you that had knowledge of the rape this spring.'

According to Fox, a father of two girls in the district said his daughters told him they would rather 'hold it' than go to the bathroom alone at school.

Ziegler addressed his differing statements on October 15 and said that he 'wrongly interpreted' a question 'about discipline incidents in bathroom' during the June meeting because he was too focused on the controversy surrounding policy 8040.

Meanwhile, the school board has completely denied accusations that they've covered up the sexual assault and Ziegler - who has yet to resign - instead apologized for 'misleading' them.

'I regret that my comments were misleading and I apologize for the distress they caused families,' he said.

'To the families and students involved, my heart aches for you. I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming and affirming environment that we aspire to provide.

'We acknowledge and share in your pain and we will continue to offer you support to help your families through this trauma,' he added.

Ziegler's apology came as board member Beth Barts resigned.

Source: Daily Mail